A fluid ejection device ejects drops of fluid from the nozzles of a fluid ejection head to dispense, coat, or print with the fluid, for example. The fluid ejection device also has a fluid ejection head maintenance device to prevent the nozzles from clogging.
An inkjet printer is a known example of a fluid ejection device. An inkjet printer has a maintenance device for the inkjet head, which is a fluid ejection head. To keep the nozzle face of the inkjet head in a constantly good working condition, the maintenance device performs an inkjet head maintenance operation while in a standby mode and during printing. As known from the literature, the maintenance operations of the maintenance device include capping the nozzle face, suctioning ink from the cap or ink nozzles, and wiping the nozzle face.
Capping is an operation that covers the nozzle face of the inkjet head and seals the nozzle face while waiting to print. This prevents ink in the ink nozzles (fluid ejection nozzles) in the nozzle face from drying, and the nozzles from clogging. Ink suction is an operation that drives a suction pump while the nozzle face of the inkjet head is capped to suction and discharge ink in the nozzles or ink in the cap. Wiping is an operation that uses a wiper to wipe ink (fluid), paper chaff, dust, and other foreign matter from the nozzle face of the inkjet head.
Such maintenance devices are described in patent documents 1 to 5 below. The maintenance devices disclosed in patent documents 3 and 4 are capable of selectively wiping and selectively suctioning plural nozzle rows.